The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventor, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
One of the major causes of death worldwide is coronary artery disease, for which stent implantation is a common treatment. Current diagnosis of coronary artery disease relies on visual examination of angiograms by operators to identify significant stenoses in arteries. While operators rely on experience for such examination, ultimately they apply estimation and intuition to determine significant stenoses, which means intra- and inter-operator variability and frequent false diagnoses. Yet, accurate detection of stenosis (and the extent of stenosis) is crucial in patient diagnosis and treatment. False stenosis detection, for example, can lead to unnecessary usage of stents, placing a huge financial cost on the patient, potentially complicating the patient's heart condition further. On the other hand, failing to diagnosis severe stenoses in coronary vessels could lead to considerable health risks, such as myocardial infarction.
These limitations in existing approaches to stenosis detection are well-known. Even with the more popular techniques, such as quantitative coronary angiography (QCA) where errors are lessened, errors still occur, plus significant human input and resource costs are required. And while the advent of new imaging technologies has helped provide better resolution and quality of medical images, identifying stenosis and the extent of it are still imprecise processes in estimation, just estimations based on better image data.
The result is that there is a great need for an automated system to quantitatively analyze angiograms to determine the extent and location of stenosis in arteries and recommend a stent (or other appropriate therapies) only if needed.